Introduction: The Long Beach Island DXpeditions (LBI-DXP)Updated June 2017

Long Beach Island, on the southern coast of New Jersey in the United
States, has been the site of a weekend medium wave-oriented DXpedition
held every autumn since 2002. Started by several east-coast DXers, it has
attracted attendees from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Iowa, Maryland and Virginia. The DXpedition is held in a beachfront motel
in the town of Ship Bottom NJ, approximately 30 miles north of Atlantic
City and 50 miles east of Philadelphia PA.

Location of the LBI DXpeditions

Long Beach Island itself is a very narrow strip of land about a mile off
the coast and features a state park and famous Barnegat lighthouse at its
northern tip. The island is a popular resort in the summer for nearby New
York City and Philadelphia residents, but in November many fishermen can
still be seen casting their rods into the surf in search of bluefish,
stripers, and other catches. The Drifting Sands Motel, our "DX Inn", is a
popular location since it's one of the few beachfront accommodations on
the island. The Drifting Sands remains open all year, and underwent
extensive renovations in 2004 including the addition of Internet access in
the room. Several nearby restaurants and convenience stores means that we
don't have to sacrifice comfort in search of exotic DX opportunities!

The Drifting Sands Motel, Ship Bottom NJ

Prior to hurricane Sandy in 2012 we typically deployed ~800 foot beverage
antennas on the beach along the base of the N-S dune fence but, due to beach
restoration work, that has since become nearly impossible. In 2004 we added
a Mark Connelly-designed rotatable six-foot broadband loop to the mix of
antennas. While the strength of the signals from the loop was much lower
than the beverages, it was better able to reject domestic stations and
provide clearer reception of the Middle East and Europe. In 2005, we added a
DX Engineering RPA-1 amplifier (recommended by Mark) to the BBL, and were
quite happy with the combination. We also added a sloper, stretching from a
third floor room to the beach and aimed towards Africa, but didn't see any
appreciable reception in the intended direction; this could be due to the
fact that the feed point was at the high end of the antenna and subsequent
experiments with that configuration proved unsuccessful. Other loop
configurations have been tested such as a 2 foot copper pipe loops, an 8
foot terminated "CB whip antenna" loop and Bruce's novel 2007 "alumiloop"
made from window frame hardware. By 2013 (after several years of
experiments) we switched exclusively to small and large single-turn loops
set up nearer the motel building. Our typical complement of antennas
includes a 6-foot BBL, several 1-meter diameter Wellbrook 1530's and one or
two 16' x 36' corner-fed superloops with Wellbrook amps. While these
antennas don't provide the tight patterns of the beverage, they are much
easier to deploy and allow this aging group of DXers to have a more
leisurely setup and tear-down process.

Each year's LBI-DXP has yielded very different results due to atmospheric
conditions. Propagation at LBI-1 in 2002 (a one-night stand) was very
auroral, so few trans-atlantic stations were heard. However Caribbean,
southern US and Latin American logs abounded (including one from Panama).
In 2003, the DXpedition expanded to two nights (Friday through Sunday), no
TA's came in, and we were again limited to stations in the western
hemisphere (including four different RJR frequencies from Jamaica). LBI-3
was the real breakout year - lots of strong European higher latitude TA
receptions, and a tentative logging of Iran. The 2005 DXpedition also
yielded numerous trans-atlantic stations including lower-latitude
Europeans, Djibouti, United Arab Emirates, and a tentative Albania. With
the introduction of software-defined radios (SDR's) in 2007 the weekend
became more like a data-gathering expedition, with the analysis of audio
and computer recordings extending for weeks (or months) after the actual
event. By 2015 several members began arriving on Thursday making for a
three-night event, allowing more time to DX and experiment with the
antenna setups. With the reduction in the number of international medium
wave broadcasters, we have expanded our DX target focus - for example, FM
DXing has become a staple of the weekend and we started to target digital
GPS-enhanced longwave beacons. See the logs at http://www.radiodxing.com
from each year for more details on what was heard.

We enjoy the camaraderie and opportunities for sharing knowledge that
comes from spending a weekend together each year dedicated to the hobby of
medium-wave DXing, and look forward to future years LBI-DXP.